The Woodruff Lab aims to uncover genetic design rules to reprogram regulation and metabolism in living cells for applications in health and biotechnology. To precisely control how a cell senses, remembers, and responds to its environment, we engineer synthetic gene networks and study their dynamics with experimental and modeling approaches. We develop high-throughput methodologies to build and interrogate large libraries of design variants using multiplexed DNA assembly, next-generation sequencing, and model-guided approaches to specify genetic diversity. This allows us to generate rich datasets that systematically and quantitatively investigate relationships between genetic composition of a design and its function in the context of the cell. With these tools and systems, our lab is working to advance the tremendous potential of harnessing living cells to autonomously sense and respond to their environment and utilize the remarkable biosynthetic machinery of biological systems to manufacture complex molecules.